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*shakes head* My mom's book club is full of very nice women, but God, they never want to read anything fun. I swear, everything is either serious mainstream fiction about women going through midlife crises, non-fiction, or from Oprah's book club. I convinced them to try A Free Man of Color this month, and nobody seemed all that enthused. For God's sake, it's Barbara Hambly. You've got melodrama, angst, lyrical descriptions , historical color, and characters so friggin' adorable you want to adopt them as pets. What more could you want?
Maybe they were expecting a plot-driven thriller and it was too character-driven for them. Maybe they didn't like the heavy dose of genre aesthetics. Maybe Ms. Hambly only appeals to fangirls.
But, damn, I'm amazed nobody mentioned Mayerling. Nobody said much about any characters at all, except the one reader who said she liked Shaw, but I'd have thought a transgendered character would have gotten a mention.
They did like the bread pudding I brought, though.
Take one loaf of pre-sliced raisin bread. Cut it in half lengthwise, and place bread slices in 8x10" brownie pan. If you so desire, you can alternate crust-up and crust-down sliced to create an aesthetically pleasing pattern.
In mixing bowl, combine 3 cups milk, 1/3 cup sugar, 4 eggs, and a teaspoon each of nutmeg and cinnamon (and a pinch of salt, because you put a pinch of salt in everything).
Pour mixture over bread. Place 8x10" pan inside a larger sheet cake pan. Fill sheet cake pan with water. Put doubled-up pans in oven, taking care not to spill water everywhere.
Bake bread at 375 degrees (f) for fifty minutes.
Ten minutes before the pudding is done, you will need to start making theliquid calorie caramel sauce.
Place 1 cup white sugar, 1 cup dark brown sugar, and 1 cup light Karo syrup in double boiler. Do not read the nutritional information on the side of the Karo syrup bottle. Ignorance is bliss.
Heat until the sugar and syrup have melted together and turned liquid. Remove from heat and stir in one teaspoon of vanilla extract and one cup of heavy cream.
Remove cooked pudding from oven. Pour about a cup of caramel sauce over it. Put the rest of the sauce in a tupperware container and eat it over ice cream for the next two weeks.
Maybe they were expecting a plot-driven thriller and it was too character-driven for them. Maybe they didn't like the heavy dose of genre aesthetics. Maybe Ms. Hambly only appeals to fangirls.
But, damn, I'm amazed nobody mentioned Mayerling. Nobody said much about any characters at all, except the one reader who said she liked Shaw, but I'd have thought a transgendered character would have gotten a mention.
They did like the bread pudding I brought, though.
Take one loaf of pre-sliced raisin bread. Cut it in half lengthwise, and place bread slices in 8x10" brownie pan. If you so desire, you can alternate crust-up and crust-down sliced to create an aesthetically pleasing pattern.
In mixing bowl, combine 3 cups milk, 1/3 cup sugar, 4 eggs, and a teaspoon each of nutmeg and cinnamon (and a pinch of salt, because you put a pinch of salt in everything).
Pour mixture over bread. Place 8x10" pan inside a larger sheet cake pan. Fill sheet cake pan with water. Put doubled-up pans in oven, taking care not to spill water everywhere.
Bake bread at 375 degrees (f) for fifty minutes.
Ten minutes before the pudding is done, you will need to start making the
Place 1 cup white sugar, 1 cup dark brown sugar, and 1 cup light Karo syrup in double boiler. Do not read the nutritional information on the side of the Karo syrup bottle. Ignorance is bliss.
Heat until the sugar and syrup have melted together and turned liquid. Remove from heat and stir in one teaspoon of vanilla extract and one cup of heavy cream.
Remove cooked pudding from oven. Pour about a cup of caramel sauce over it. Put the rest of the sauce in a tupperware container and eat it over ice cream for the next two weeks.
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I thought of that after I suggested it, but figured that, since my mom likes the series as well, there'd be at least one person who'd get all enthused about it. If nothing else, it's a much better written mystery than the Rita May Brown one we read in December. But actually, nobody had any real complaints about the subject matter (that they were willing to make during the discussion, anyway). Mostly, people didn't like the style, or said they had a hard time getting into it, or that they couldn't keep track of people's costumes (it's set during Mardi Gras, which means people run around in masks a lot). Honestly, I'm sort of surprised nobody complained about it being too "out there" or something--I swear, I competely forgot that there's a minor character who's transgendered until I re-read the book for book club, and then I slapped my forehead in self-irritation. And then scratched my head in confusion when nobody else even mentioned him/her.
The one that's really going to be too "provocative" for them is Wicked, which somebody suggested they/we read in August. I think they're expecting it to be wholesome and family-oriented like the Wizard of Oz movie, and all of the sex and political scheming will come as a major shock to them. That, plus apparently nobody else has read Frank L. Baum's original Oz books, so they're going to be real confused by all the stuff that's not like the movie.
Next month's book is about a middle-aged woman going through a midlife crisis, though, so that one should be a hit.